Genome
by AlexisGrimm
Summary: What do nanites, the human genome, and rouge science have in common? They all have secrets that left undiscovered could lead to something bigger than one young woman can handle on her own. When the life of a young scientist goes sideways she must find a way to survive the trials put in front of her as well as her comrades new and old. Femshep.
1. The Science Experiment

**Not sure how to classify this one, SI or OC, but feel free to share your thoughts I would love to read your feedback, hope you enjoy it.**

 **I do not own anything of the mass effect series, it is owned by bioware ect...**

 **Genome**

 **Ch1. The Science Experiment**

I admit what we were doing was no small thing, but it wasn't like we were some super-secret facility researching advanced weaponry or some new type of food that would put an end to world hunger for good, but it was revolutionary to say the least. I was young and ambitious with a dream that I could almost touch. I hadn't even cared what happened next as long as I made it to the finish line. It all started when I discovered a mineral compound that mimicked DNA almost perfectly. Since humanity was in the age of genetic experimentation I figured that rather than messing with DNA it would be beneficial if we knew more about this DNA look-a-like, and that it could be used to treat or even cure difficult diseases. I found shortly after that it could be used to program small robots, or nanites as it were, to perform simple tasks that ordinary robots could not due to their size. At the time I didn't realize the borders I was crossing at the time or the potential consequences of crossing them. The possibilities were endless and I intended to peruse them all eventually, but I was more concerned about finishing my current project. I wanted to create nanites that could effectively treat or eliminate any disease inside of a person without harming them or altering their own DNA.

Five months into the project and my partners and I succeeded in programing a small group of nanites to safely remove two commonly treatable diseases from a lab rat. The problems came when we tried to increase the number and or the complexity of the diseases. The more complex, numerous, or unknown the disease, the more dangerous they became.

It was as if the universe did not want such a cure to exist, the harder we tried the worse it got. The problem wasn't that the nanites wouldn't cure the diseases and genetic defects, rather that they did their job to quickly. The host's bodies didn't have time to react or to repair themselves properly.

When we discovered the problem we immediately began researching counter methods, I began working on rapid cell regeneration and detoxification, while my counterpart Dorian began working on the coordination between the nanites and the hosts themselves. My research lead me to healthier cells that aged far more slowly than normal, and Dorian's' lead to nanites that worked with the body rather than against it. We both had great success and two years later the project began to make some real headway.

The nanites were far from a finished product but each of the two parts did what they were supposed to, the only problem now was finding a way to combine them properly. The combined material we had now was lethal in even the smallest dose but easy to counteract if treated in time. Even if we couldn't find a way to safely combine the two we had great success with the two as separate solutions to the original problem. Unfortunately became the star of the show. Our work hadn't been made public yet and the people we worked for, an obscure unnamed branch of government, wanted to make me the representative of the whole project. My portion of the research was showier and more of a selling point than the other half of the research, and I was more of a sociable person than my partner Dorian. They thought that a young woman who knew what she was talking about and how to get things done was more appealing to whomever they were trying to win over or appeal to. I suggested, more than once, that we both represent the project but they didn't want any differences in opinions or methods to complicate things or some such BS. They just wanted the younger, more attractive scientist to be the figurehead.

I told them that I would think it over on the long weekend and left. Of course I had already made up my mind. I would not do that to my partner, no matter what the organization wanted.

I went back to the lab that night to get a few of the things that I had forgotten to take with me before the meeting and to clean up a bit from the day's work. As I finished straightening up the last of the equipment I heard footsteps behind me. It wasn't unusual for any of the scientists of their assistants to be here so late, we all had a habit of getting wrapped up in our work or forgetting important things in obscure places some days. I turned to see my partner standing in the doorway, I could tell that something was wrong.

Instead of his usual cheery greeting or a weary hello he just stood there silently, disheveled and hunched over, refusing to look me in the eye. Something was very wrong. "Dorian, are you alright? Did something happen?" I started toward him hopping that he had just had an unusually long day or had forgotten to eat lunch, something small and easily fixable. He straightened his lab coat that had begun to fall off of one shoulder as he took a couple steps forward. I caught a look at his face as he pushed his glasses back into place, the look in his eyes was terrifying. I stopped walking toward him and took an involuntary step back, it was a look of pure hatred and unspeakable deeds. He was no longer the friendly fun-loving Dorian that I had known for the past two years, "Dorian what's going on?"

"You traitor… you planned on taking it all from the beginning didn't you? Didn't you!" Dorian took a few more steps toward me. He was a full two heads taller than me and a hundred pounds heavier, in a head on confrontation I didn't stand a chance. I was to busy trying to find a way out of the room past the crazed scientist that I didn't realize what he was so angry about. "This work, this research is my life! How could you? I thought we were the same, I thought we were friends, and you turned on me! You're just like them, just like everyone else. All you want is power no matter who you have to step on to get it, no matter how. You filthy traitor!" he had practically screamed those last words, and that is when it sank in. he thought I had accepted the offer and abandoned him, and to him it probably looked like I was here to collect the research notes and leave him behind.

I stopped trying to find a way around him long enough to explain, "Wait Dorian, it's not like that I didn't…" he lunged at me before I could finish. I dove to the side past a work table, nearly toppling it and gashing my shoulder open on the corner. I scrambled to the opposite corner of the room, trying not to slip in the blood now dripping down my arm, as my former college worked his way around the tables and equipment, making sure to stay between me and the door. "Please don't do this, it isn't what you think. I'm not going to steal your work! I wouldn't you know me, you know I would never do anything like that."

Ignoring me he pulls something from his inside pocket. "No you won't and I'm sorry but it's too late to trust you, too late to believe you're my friend."

I make a break for the door, attempting to stay out of arms reach but he is faster. He grabs me by the arm and pulls me in, twisting my arm back. Instead of a blade or a gun like I was expecting I feel a small prick in the back of my neck. Terrified that he was going to drug me and them decide my ultimate fate I tried to pull away.

I heard the syringe hit the floor and glanced toward it. My whole world slowed as I went numb, not from drugs or poison, but fear. The double barrel syringe on the floor was full of nanites, or half full to be precise. I hit the floor as pain overwhelmed me and began to spread from the base of my skull to my back and then my whole body. I felt like I was on fire everywhere inside and out. Each second felt like years and the burning only intensified. "This project dies with you, and so do your nanites." He picks up the syringe and carefully injects me with the remaining nanites, taking care to hit the same spot.

Just when I thought I might get some relief from the fire, that the rest of the nanites would surely kill me quickly the pain doubles and then triples as I cry out like the dying animal I have become. I didn't even notice that he had left the room moments after leaving the syringe next to me.

For hours I languished in unending pain, unable to even pass out. As the waves of pain enveloped me I found a single thought that, although lacking in comfort, gave me strength. The pain was death, the same death we had given to so many creatures, I didn't want to die, not like this. I wanted to live. I didn't know why, or what I would do if I did, only that I wanted to live.

An eternity later the pain began to subside, if only a little at a time, and then exhaustion began to creep in. I could think again, if I could get to the other room then I could get to the counter agent. When the pain became almost bearable I crawled over to the door only to find it locked. The last of my energy gone and the pain still on the verge of overwhelming me again, I did the only thing that I could, I cried. I cried, desperate and alone, my friend and partner had betrayed me and my dream was killing me slowly and painfully.

When I had cried myself out I thought that the pain might have begun to subside again, but then I realized how tired I was, I wasn't hurting less I was passing out from exhaustion. If I didn't know how dangerous that was it would have been a welcome relief, even knowing that the moment I fell unconscious it would be all over, I was tempted to let it be, to let the pain disappear at any cost. An unconscious sigh and one of the hardest decisions of my life later I levered myself up. Even though it made the pain worse again I crawled back over to the table with my things on it hopping my phone hadn't died, I was notorious for not charging it when needed. If I could just get up there long enough to grab it I would at least be able to call for help.

Even though the pain was not as bad as it was at first, moving definitely made it worse. I slowly worked my way up the table leg, making sure to take it slow and easy. Once up I edged over to my things while supporting myself with my arms as well as my legs so I wouldn't fall. As time consuming as it was I knew that I had to take it slow, I found my phone under my bag and leaned a bit two far over. I crashed to the ground whimpering in agony as the fire spread through my body again. It only lasted a minute or two this time before my senses returned. The phone had landed a few feet to my right, I had dropped it reflexively when the pain hit. I reached over and grabbed it ignoring the fire spreading through my arm and injured shoulder. I had it, my saving grace, I might still have time if I could just call someone. Tears welled up in my eyes as I hit the power button and the screen lit up, just long enough for me to see the broken touch screen flash low battery before it died.

This day had gone from bad, to worse, to tragic. No one would be in till after the long holiday weekend. I was doomed to die it seemed and if that wasn't the worst of it I was tired and hungry to boot. I rolled onto my back and closed my eyes, if I was going to meet my maker I would at least be well rested. Tears streaming down my face I cried myself to sleep.

Somewhere between the fire and the darkness I dreamed, it was a strange place made of colors and feelings I had never experienced before. Then came the sound, a jumbled mess at first then very slowly it began to sound like voices, hundreds of thousands of voices all speaking at once getting louder and louder. Some asking questions, others giving orders, it was total chaos. The colors became shapes and the feelings became clearer, becoming a blueprint for something bigger that I couldn't quite see all at once. It was lines and circles, tubes and branches. A mess of colors and shapes all mashed together, constantly shifting, always changing.

For some reason I knew that it wasn't supposed to look like that, for some reason it looked like one giant three dimensional puzzle to me. The voices were getting hard to ignore now as they became a deafening roar, I tried to cover my ears without any success, the noise grew until I couldn't take it anymore. I screamed, angry and frustrated, "Shut Up! I need to think!" and just like that the voices quieted and the picture stopped shifting and changing.

I looked at it for a few seconds and thought about how the pieces should have looked, how they should fit together. Then the strangest thing happened, the voices began to hum almost melodically and the puzzle began to take shape. It swirled and shifted, but only how I wanted it to. A very long time later when I was finally satisfied with it the world changed.

I rolled over with a dull ache everywhere and a hunger so deep I could have sword I hadn't eaten in a week. I shakily lifted myself off of the tile floor, only daring to stand after the world stopped spinning violently. I hobbled over to my things and greedily dug through my bag for my water and prayed I hadn't eaten my last snack.

Three granola bars and one large water bottle later I was up and searching for a way out of the locked room. Seen as how I didn't have a phone and my keys were out in the car, I know stupid move but the doors to this room and the service door were never locked. Bad planning on my part, as well as the lack of a way OUT from the locked room from the INSIDE, bad planning on the company's part. I would have to get that fixed after I got out. I didn't know how or why I was alive, only that I was and I didn't want to question it just quite yet. I couldn't tell what time of day it was. I was in an interior room, without a clock, another oversight I would have to get fixed, but I could see well enough without an exterior window that I could safely assume it was daytime at the very least. That or I was dead, I didn't think dead people needed to eat granola bars.

Working my way around the room I found nothing overly useful, or edible to my disappointment. An air vent that I couldn't fit through, a couple of empty paperclip boxes, and a hammer for some odd reason. I would have used the hammer and worked my way to an unlocked room, but I knew that the walls were reinforced for good reasons. And once again my situation went and took a turn for the worse.

Smoke. At first I could smell it only faintly like a phantom, I hopped it was just my imagination or that someone had left something in the toaster in the break room too long and the smell was just now reaching me in the closed off room, however unlikely. Then small wisps of the stuff started curling under the door.

I needed to get out now! If the smoke and fire didn't kill me then the chemicals would. As it was the city was probably already evacuating the area and declaring it a hazard zone as well as preparing to combat the blaze before it got too far out of hand. A missing scientist was the least of their worries especially since I was certain that the fire was man-made. In my rush to find a solution I remembered, even though windows next to the door were webbed with mesh inside the glass I could still break the glass and find something to cut the wire mesh with.

I was in a lab for God's sake. There was always something to cut with in here. Again I trashed the lab searching but this time I knew exactly what I needed. Halfway through the first desk I found it, wire cutters and leather work gloves.

I got my things together by the window and started swinging the hammer. It took a couple of good swings to break at first but after the initial break it was easy going with the glass. Unfortunately the instant it broke more smoke came pouring into the room and my already diminishing air supply was getting smaller. I made quick work of the mesh and tried squeezing through the narrow opening only to find myself wedged half in half out and loosing precious time. I gave a good heave in the outward direction, and even though my progress was minimal it was something. A few more good heaves and I was free.

Grabbing my stuff from the floor next to the window, phone included, I wasted no time bolting down the halls, not daring to breathe in the toxic fumes and praying that I had it in me to make it out before I lost consciousness. My head began to pound and my lungs were screaming before I found my way into a mostly clear hallway. I dropped down just below the smoke to find clear air, hopefully without the poison gasses no doubt swirling throughout the building by now. I gulped down the semi stale air knowing I wouldn't find a boon like this a second time. Almost there almost free, only one more short sprint and I was out.

I took one final breath and ran like I never had before. Safety was the last thing on my mind, survival the first. Rocketing down the halls making hairpin turns and narrowly dodging debris and other obstacles I was almost there. I turned one last corner and to my exhausted relief the doors leading to my freedom were free of debris.

I scrambled to get the doors open, fumbling a few times, my vision blurring from lack of oxygen, and did the one thing that could spell my death. I breathed in the toxic mire surrounding me. It seared my lungs and I choked on it but it gave me just the break I needed to get my eyes and hands to cooperate enough to turn the knob and push. I couldn't even hear the click over the roaring flames that had begun chasing me through the halls.

I just stumbled through the roaring silence into the late morning light of outside. It was bright and warm out, as well windy. I stumbled away from the burning laboratory and collapsed across the parking lot next to my car. My lungs were burning and my body felt warmer than it should have. My last coherent thought, Why had Dorian done this? Why go this far?

 **Hope you liked the first chapter! Feedback is welcomed and if you have any ideas or character ideas for me pm me please and thank you. And yes I realized after writing this that the Syco Human scientist has the same name as the Volus banker/ info broker. I left it that way intentionally after thinking about it, that and I was too lazy to change it.**


	2. Archive

**For those of you that read ch1 thank you and if you decided to start reading at ch2 I warn you that it would make more sense if you read ch1 first. Thanks again for reading.**

 **Genome**

 **Ch2. Archive**

Beep… beep… beep… what was that infernal sound. Repetition, unwavering repetition. It was warm, wait where was I again? My eyes didn't want to open, and I was putting a lot of effort into just waking up. Beep… beep… beep… what was beeping? As soon as I cracked an eye open I had to close it. There was a bright light trained directly on my face. I shifted away from it, and lifted my arm to cover my eyes to avoid being blinded by the light again.

What the heck was on my wrist, it almost looked like I had one of those theme park bracelet things on, the ones that never come off until you take the scissors to them. What the hell had I been doing? A look around the room however told a different story.

White walls, simple furniture in an open, spacious room, and a single large window. Small table against the wall, two chairs by the window, the bed I was on, oh and medical equipment beside the bed. Lifting my other arm I finally notice the tube and wire, one leading to the drip and the other to the heart monitor. Beep… beep… beep… Why was I in a hospital… beep… beep…beep… _Shit,_ that's right, the lab. I sat up slowly, testing myself. Nothing felt off. Nothing hurt, nothing creaked or clicked, and the world didn't spin any faster than it usually did.

Ok, so someone had found me passed out by my car and then I ended up in the hospital, which was the logical order for things to turn out. What I couldn't figure out was why I was still in a hospital, unrestrained, when I knew that there should still be nanites running rampant through my body. I had long surpassed the amount of time that the counter agent would have been able to eliminate them from my system, heck I had been so far past the feasible timeline that I should have been dead three or four times over by the time I made it across the parking lot.

I swung my legs out over the edge of the bed. Pulling the heart monitor clip off of my finger and pushing the power button to the infernal thing, sighing in relief as the beeping stopped. I was tempted to pull the drip tube from my arm as well but I couldn't see anything resembling a band-aid so I decided against it for now.

It was still hard to believe that I had survived, and even harder to believe that there would be no one here monitoring me. I had to wonder though, would the nanites show up in a normal set of hospital tests? Perhaps if they tested for titanium or the mineral compound we had dubbed mimic. I doubted that last one, no one outside the project knew anything more than it existed, let alone how to test for or identify it.

Footsteps just outside my door interrupted my thoughts. I could hear voices outside discussing something but didn't have time to make sense of it before the door opened. Two people walked into my room, the first was most notably the last person I had expected to see. The project director, the one who had been the first to suggest that I be the one to represent the project. The other was an older gentlemen with salt and pepper hair and a white coat with a name tag that read Dr. Kilik.

Now I had expected a lot of things, and had a dozen scenarios plotted out that could easily explain my situation, this was not one of them.

"Ah, miss Grimm, good to see you awake. How do you feel?" the doctor held up his clipboard and pulled out a pen. It was almost funny, I wanted to make a sarcastic remark and accuse them of taking me for a fool and that I knew what they were playing at, but I didn't. I had no clue what was really going on. So I decided it couldn't do much harm to act as if nothing extraordinary had happened.

"Um, fine I guess. I'm a bit confused though. What happened…?" I let myself trail off hopping that it would prompt one of them to explain further and fill in the blanks.

"Well I would hopping that you could tell me but that's alright, you just survived a traumatic experience and no one is going to push you to remember anything. We have a good understanding of what happened. You were in a chemical fire at the laboratory and somehow made it to your car before you fell unconscious, by the time we got you here you had a high fever and your lungs were badly seared by said chemicals. We were lucky to have gotten to you when we did, had you been exposed for muck longer we may not have been able to get your lungs cleared out and your fever down. We believe that your body was trying to burn the chemicals out. By the time we got your temperature down most of the chemicals were out of your system with minimal damage. Let me tell you that you are one tough woman, and a lucky one at that."

"How long was I out for?" he was right about my luck, only I wasn't sure if it was good or bad at this point. Sure I had survived the impossible, but I had been betrayed by my friend and almost killed several times in the process. Did they really not suspect anything?

"Four days, and I have never seen anyone recover so quickly." My blood froze. "your body's ability to recover is fascinating, it should have taken at least another couple of days to get that many toxins out of your system, and although not nearly as impressive, and probably in part due to the quick detoxification, your lungs have nearly recovered. In a few days you should be back at the top of your game, so to speak." Had he just passed it off as almost normal? I let go of the breath that I had been holding on to. So not as bad as I had imagined, that was good.

"Alexandra, I'm sorry to bother you at this point but so you have any idea who could have set the fire that night? If you could help point us in the right direction that would be a great help."

"Dorian." I had to refrain from covering my mouth, I had said it without thinking. There was no turning back now. "He was there that night, he knocked me out with something and locked me in one of the labs, I think he might have set the fire too." Mr. Avery looked thoughtful before answering.

"That makes sense, he would have motive, and it would make sense for him to try and get rid of any witnesses as well."

"Wait what? Why would he want to do something like that?" I almost spilled the beans about him being there to kill me specifically. I didn't want to draw unwanted speculation.

"Right, sorry I had forgotten that you hadn't been told yet. Dorian was fired the day before the fire, he refused the mandatory psychological evaluation, the one you took last month."

"Oh." That would explain a _lot_ of things, like why Dorian would jump to that kind of conclusion and why he wouldn't believe a word I said. "Wait, why was I not informed of this before the meeting?"

"We didn't want you to feel pressured into the position, although it did put a wrench in the works when you said that you wouldn't take the position unless he was given the same. We gave you the weekend to think about the proposal as much as we did to give ourselves the weekend to think about how to proceed."

Well crap. These people were having almost as many problems as me right about now. "He didn't lock me in there to eliminate a witness." The two men shared a look of shock before looking back to me expectantly. "I was the one he was after. He wanted to kill me." Their stares were getting incredibly uncomfortable, and I had no idea why the doc was still there, or why the police weren't asking the questions… oh wait… military scientist, duh… military investigation. Wow for a scientist who worked on cutting edge technology I felt stupid.

"This certainly puts a new perspective on the situation." Why was the DR. the one who sounded like he was involved? I was getting that uneasy feeling again.

Mr. Avery sighed, "You're telling me. We finally get a lead and then we get told our original theories were way off. Crap! What am I going to tell HQ?"

"The hell is going on?" I couldn't hold it in any longer, I was certain that the window that didn't open was too thick to break without some sort of tool, and I _knew_ that Dr. Kilik was somehow working for or with Mr. Avery. What had I gotten mixed up in? "Who the hell are you and what am I doing here? Is this even a hospital?"

Dr. Kilik spoke up this time, "I am Dr. Kilik and I believe that you already know who Mr. Avery is. As for where you are and why you are here, yes this is a hospital and you are here for obvious reasons that have already been explained. I am sorry that our investigation has confused you."

"Kilik I don't think that was what she meant when she asked who we were." Mr. Avery walked over to the window and ran a hand through his dark hair. "You would have found out eventually if you had accepted the offered position anyway and now you've been dragged into the heart of it anyway. We are a government organization dedicated to the advancement of technology and the prevention of the misuse of said technology. We like to think that if we keep ahead of the competition then it will make it easier to keep dangerous tech from finding its way to the 'public'. You're a smart cookie and I know we won't be able to keep something like this from you long so I hope you will forget about all of this for the time being. Or you could join us." He gave me a hopeful look, Kilik ignoring his colleague as he intently went over the papers on his clipboard. "Honestly it's up to you."

I had been about to jump up off of the bed at a moment's notice before, now I was just barely able to keep myself upright on the bed. It was a lot to take in, nanites, betrayal, unknowingly working for a secret government organization, waking up in a hospital bed after being asleep for four days, getting invited to join said organization due to crap that was their fault in the first place. I was exhausted, and somewhat excited.

Sure I was mad at the bastards for keeping me in the dark, but c'mon, you can't just tell everyone that kind of crap just because it happens to somehow tie in to something you do. It wouldn't be a secret for long if they did. I was more disappointed that they had let something like this happen to one of the people who was at the time uninvolved with said secrecy, even if the other top scientist had been the one at fault, they should have seen this kind of crap coming. I wasn't sure if I believed them fully at the moment but I didn't have much of a choice, that and I knew that if I didn't like how things went I could always find a better place to escape from than a room with one exit and two potential opponents that could probably easily overpower me without the others assistance. A huff escaped me as I slouched over and thought. "So does this organization have a name?"

"Officially no, but we like to call ourselves Observers, or Archive. Arc for short." It was tempting to ask if Noah was the one in charge, but I didn't. "As you have probably guessed we have a very influential network, if not then I feel it necessary to inform you of such."

"Hold on, I never said I was joining you. _If_ I am going to join you and Arc then I feel it necessary to inform _you_ that I will do things my way. I don't do military style anything, and I refuse to call anyone sir, just because they feel entitled to it."

Dr. Kilik snickered at that last part, I hadn't thought it that funny. Avery blinked a couple times before busting out into a huge grin. Between fits of laughter the older man managed to sputter out a few words. "She is exactly like you ten years ago Avery. I can't believe there is someone else out there that thinks like you do."

"Oh shut it you old kook." They seemed more like old friends than they had before, "I should have seen this coming." They were getting comfortable.

Looking at them with the most serious face I could muster I couldn't let them know that they had thrown me off my game. "If you're messing with me…"

"What? You'll talk us to death with your science, Nerd." A woman had somehow managed to enter the room without drawing attention to herself. I nearly had a heart attack. Backing away from the black clad, woman I almost fell off the other side of the bed. She was dressed in military grade everything, her outfit consisting of Kevlar, Kevlar, more Kevlar, and the occasional piece of metal.

"What the hell! How did you." I wasn't one to lose my words so easily.

"Behave yourself Malice. I know you aren't fond of those of us with little in the way of physical capabilities but you have to play nice. This is the one I told you about yesterday."

"No shit Sherlock, I just thought she would be a bit more impressive, or at least a bit less pathetic. After all you did say she survived her own masterpiece." The venom dripping off of that last word sent my stomach plummeting. Whoever this Malice was she lived up to her name, and she knew about the nanites.

"I am not a Nerd, I am a respected scientist and as for surviving my _masterpiece_ , I didn't do anything special, it just happened." Rage, frustrated rage was what was keeping me going by this point. I hadn't done anything to deserve this, I hadn't done anything to warrant this kind of treatment. All I had done was work, survive, and fail at trying to keep a secret that it turns out wasn't a secret.

"Were."

"I'm sorry?"

"You _were_ a respected scientist. The media thinks you're the one that set the fire, they think you tried to get away before the toxic gases spread only to realize you forgot your keys and passed out beside your car."

"On no no no no no." they were a secret organization, and if the media got involved they couldn't just come out and say, well our super-secret sources and advanced technology tell us that she isn't the one who did this, we think it might have been someone else but we don't have any proof that we can release to the public so you'll just have to take our word for it. "No, this can't be…" Can't isn't a word I should be using right now. The window didn't open for my protection, not my incarceration. There was probably a guard at my door too.

"Pfht. You think this is bad you should see the shit the rest of us have to deal with." Malice stared to turn to the door but stopped and turned back to me instead. "Never mind, you'd never make it that far, Nerd." She turned to leave, I lunged at her.

I didn't care if she was trained military, my life had just gone to shit and nearly ended and she felt the need to feed her inferiority complex at my expense. She spun on her heel smirking and slammed me hard in the ribs with both hands, I sailed across the room hitting the wall next to my bed. The drip tube had dislodged from my arm and I didn't care, blood dripped down my wrist as I stood back up.

"That's enough Malice!" the Dr. took a step toward her to stop her just as I took a step toward her and let my bloodied fist speak for me.

She went to put her hand up to catch my punch, I wasn't aiming for her body like she guessed. I broke her nose, when she stumbled back holding her very broken nose she lit up with anger. The Dr. wasn't fast enough to stop us, she lunged at me this time and all I could think to do was swing my arm in a huge backhand arc. The world slowed and I clenched my hand into a fist and took a step toward her as I swung, pushing forward as hard as I could. I felt her body tense against the sudden onslaught, and the resistance as I refused to give any ground, then the release as she was flung back to the opposite wall.

My arm felt like jelly, and I was suddenly dizzy. I stumbled back to the bed and sat down before I fell. The Dr. walked over to Malice as she slowly extracted herself from the floor, and Mr. Avery practically leapt over to me. "Are you alright? What in the world was that!?"

"You Bitch!" She had gotten herself up and if it weren't for the Dr. restraining her I would probably be in the hospital for a while longer.

"That was… I don't know…" I could only guess that it has something to do with the nanites. Unintended side effects maybe?

"That would be your Precious masterpiece slowly turning you into a monster." Malice had stopped struggling when she realized that getting away from Kilik would be impossible. Now she had a triumphant smile plastered to her face.

"I'm not a monster, I fully intended to hand your ass to you on a silver platter. I just didn't expect it to be so easy." The smirk fell from her face and she gave another tug to test Kilik's grip, he held firm and led her out of the room.

My hands were shaking, she might be right, but I wasn't going to give her the pleasure of knowing she was right. I grasped my hands together to get them to stop shaking, and Avery put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. Had he planned this? Or does this sort of thing happen often enough that it didn't faze him.

"Don't let her get to you, I don't know why Isiah recruited her for something like this since her greatest pleasure seems to be making others miserable but I guess he has his reasons. That was some display of power, and lack of self-control. " So he was at least smart enough to tell a bluff when he saw one. Good to know I wasn't going to be working for a complete idiot. "I hope you decide whose side you're on soon, god knows we need all the help we can get, you could use the help as well."

He started toward the door but I stopped him, "Wait." I knew that the longer I waited the more trouble I would get into. "I need to get out of here ASAP, and you happen to be my best option right now. I'm not saying I'll sign my soul over to you, but I will agree to listen to everything you have to say, to work for you as long as it is doing good like you said it would."

He blinked again, "You're serious, aren't you."

"One hundred percent, just keep that psychopath away from me. I've had enough of them lately to last a lifetime."

"I will see what I can do, welcome to Archive Grimm." His smile was only half there but his eyes said he was more interested in the sudden development than worried. So I took it as a good sign.

I nodded in return, what have I gotten myself into?

 **That is it for ch2! Hope it draws out as many questions as it answers. I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas for characters, reviews are welcome. Thanks.**


	3. Top Of The Line

**Genome**

 **Ch3. Top Of The Line**

Today was the day. I was going to meet with one overseer Isiah, or at least I was supposed to. I had been out of the hospital for a week now and had spent every waking moment trying to gather what was left of my personal belongings only to be told I couldn't keep most of them. To top it all off, when I entered the room with Mr. Avery to meet with Isiah he wasn't there. In his stead was a young man in the same uniform as malice had been wearing, waiting for us in the center of the room.

"Hello Mr. Avery, Miss Grimm, I am Overseer Isiah's assistant. Overseer Isiah is currently indisposed and I will be meeting with you in his stead and conveying his wishes to you." Oh hell.

"Thank you Mr. Mayfield, it is a shame that Isiah could not make it." Was he seriously going to take this? Or was he just playing along?

Mayfield nodded to Avery, "If you would please come with me I will be setting you up with your new gear and introducing you to your new teammates." He led us through a door in the far side of the room and then through a maze of corridors. Typical secret military complicated buildings. Why did they have to make everything so overly complicated? Couldn't they have just build something simple and functional?

We came to a large set of double doors in the middle of one of the wider hallways, we stopped there. "I want you to remember that whatever gear you choose to leave here with will be your gear, and you won't get to come to this room again." What was this a video game? I nodded anyways and Avery did as well, he looked as interested as I was. Had he never been here before? When we entered the room we noticed two things. One the room was nearly empty, and two it was big for an empty room. It was about ten feet tall by fifteen feet long by ten feet wide. Inside there were two computers and various displays and a couple different sized printers of sorts. Otherwise the room was empty. What, was I supposed to choose my gear out of some online catalogue or something? Maybe print some plastic underwear for my super hero costume? The heck was wrong with these people?

"If you look through the computers design files you may find something to your liking, you may modify any of them to your liking or create your own gear, provided it works that is." That self-important attitude of his was going to get him in trouble sooner or later, I wasn't sure but I think he thought I was just some crazy scientist who got lucky and stumbled across something good. Or at least that was the vibe I was getting from him.

You would think that by 2072 humanity would have a better understanding of itself and each other. Nope. I sat down at one of the terminals, computers were more my style lately. I skimmed over the basic programing with a couple keystrokes. Making sure that Mayfield wasn't watching, this was easier than I remembered it. The electric hum from the console was almost melodic as I brought up the design programs and began tweaking things. This really was state of the art, I could do almost anything with it as long as the 3d printer had the capacity to print it.

An hour later, Avery hit the print button. The printers whirred to life as his gear slowly came to life.

Ten minutes later, he was oh-ing and ah-ing over his new toys. A basic set of old style armor, a semi-automatic rifle, two hand guns, and a few gadgets I didn't recognize. I rolled my eyes at his amazement and turned back to my work. I wasn't going to be so easy to impress.

Twenty minutes later, I looked over everything on my screen and nodded to myself. Avery was still fawning over his new gear and had put it on almost immediately after he had gone over it the first time. Mayfield was trying to hide his impatience, I was trying to hide a delighted smile.

"Are you finished Miss Grimm?" the printers had whirred to life once more as I too hit the print button. My gear took almost half an hour to print, why? Because I had intentionally designed it in pieces. It hadn't been to irritate Mayfield, no, that was just a bonus. I had done so because I knew that the printers would not have been able to make it otherwise. That and there were a couple things I wanted to add later on that I knew they didn't have the materials to make with the 3D printers. There were still things that were better off done by hand.

To Avery's and my own amusement, and Mayfield's disdain it took another hour to properly assemble the pieces once they were printed and further modified. If I hadn't been so absorbed in my work I would have reveled in his misery.

"This is why you don't let an accomplished scientist play with these kinds of things." Avery was too busy laughing at his own joke to notice I was finished putting the pieces together.

"Finally. I thought it would take all afternoon." The look of horror on Mayfield's face was priceless. I chuckled before stepping into the oddly shaped suit. Half flexible, knife proof bullet resistant fabric, half mismatched bullet proof plating. The thing weighed forty to fifty pounds. Luckily I was super human now. Well almost. I could easily move around in a weighted suit for two to three hours and I was figuring out my new found strength. Sure I needed to eat twice the nutrients as a normal person my size would have to when I used said strength but hey, it wasn't like I couldn't afford it when someone else was feeding me.

I let my conscious mind slip back to the world I had discovered within myself. Colors turned into shapes and the melodic hum filled my being. Feeling the weight of the armor I had dubbed the Blade Scorpion, I imagined it as a part of me. I began by rolling my shoulders, shifting my feet, and clenching my hands. The colorful world of the nanites grew larger. As my awareness grew beyond the easy parts I went farther. I tested every muscle I could easily move and found the Blade Scorpions range of movement almost matched my own and even surpassed it in some places. I would have to work on that later. Then the hard part, I pushed my consciousness to a place I never had. I willed the long tail with a needle like point on the end to lift off of the floor, and it complied. It was strange to say the least, like having a third arm in an awkward place that moved in a completely different kind of way than the other two. I found out the hard way that I would have to practice with it when I nearly took out one of the computers when I turned around and forgot to pay attention to it.

I walked over to the remaining gear careful not to take Avery's eye out on the way by. I picked up a pair of twin blades that resembled the claws of a scorpion and secured them to my back. I clipped three small reusable E.M.P devices to my belt on one side, four two-terabyte USB thumb drives in a clip on the same side, a key that I could use to open almost any physical lock and a small key fob device that I would have to have someone program for me later to unlock the electronic ones, I put those ones in a small slide open catch on my left arm and a wireless pair of ear phones that went behind my ears instead of inside in the catch on my other arm. When closed the catches were seamless and nearly Impossible to find without knowing they were there.

I picked up one more thing before I turned to the second door in the room. The one I knew led to our next destination. I turned the super refractive cube over in my hands, it was roughly twice the size of a rubix cube and weighed about five pounds it looked like a peculiar piece of quartz and that wasn't very far off the mark, it was indeed quartz, mostly. I tossed it into the bag I had brought along with me that was now strapped to my back. I couldn't help but laugh at my reflection on the super polished walls, I looked like a cosplayer heading to a convention with my bag thrown over my shoulder. Tapping the side of my helmet to test the release I was relieved to hear the soft click that meant it was working. I readjusted my helmet and made sure it was secure again before following Avery and Mayfield through the door and down another maze of hallways.

The room was big and surprisingly well lit, there were couches off in one corner next to what I assumed to be a snack bar. In the other direction were vehicles you saw in the news roaming the streets of war torn countries or disaster areas. In the center of the room was the most advanced setup of computers and lab equipment I had ever seen outside of a movie. It was so beautiful that I found it hard not to geek out.

Scattered throughout the room were seven people, whom I assumed were our new teammates. At our arrival, or more likely Mayfield's arrival, they all stood up and made their way over to us.

"Miss Grimm, Mr. Avery, this is your new team." We eyed the ragtag bunch, they were nothing if not experienced in their fields of work, and it showed plainly on each and every one of their faces. "Pearl Willey, mechanic and demolitions expert." An odd combination I would have to ask about later, her bleached hair and white armor suit were more suited to light combat and even though she only stood at about five foot two she managed to look down on me somehow. "Justin Matthes, rookie vanguard and hacker." Five foot eleven, wiry build, colored contacts and surprisingly well groomed for a hacker. "Tanya Hanby, advanced tactics and recon specialist." Also five foot eleven, light armor and armed to the teeth, her short brown hair hardly visible beneath her helmet. "Tristan 'Vito' Morby, close combat genius and self-proclaimed lady's man." Six foot four, smug smile permanently plastered to his face. I already wanted to punch him through a wall. "Desmond Rathford, tech expert and sniper." Six foot, blond, I might actually get along with this one. "Nelson Lynn, linguistics and analytics." Five foot six, glasses, classic nerd, only this one was packing a shotgun strapped to his back. "Vernell Dolman, elite special forces and veritable MacGyver, also the leader of this team." Five foot nine, short black hair, heavy armor, armed to the teeth. "Zero team these are your new squad mates, Alexandra Grimm and Avery Mercer. Now if you will excuse me I have a very long list of things to do and very little time to do them, play nice."

 **It might take a little longer to write some of the future chapters than I originally thought due to a lack of characters. So if anyone would like to pitch me some ideas to speed the process along it would be greatly welcomed. Thanks for reading!**


	4. Welcome To The Team

**Genome**

 **Ch4. Welcome To The Team**

"Is that a tail?" figures the nerd would be the first to comment.

"No Nelson, it's an apple, no shit it's a tail." The sarcasm dripping from Pearl was almost nauseating, "Better question would have been _why_ does she have a tail." She crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side with a look that said she had seen to many newbies trying to be cool to impress her. "You know that in a real fight that's the first thing you're going to lose, and if you don't lose it, it might very well cost you your life." The scowl on her pale face was more than enough to get her reasoning across.

A round of snickers nearly set me off, I knew how ridiculous and pointless it seemed at first. That was half the point. Justin Matthes, "So I guess since it would have been cliché to be a spider or a tiger you went for what? A scorpion?" A soft chuckle from beside me did not go unnoticed. I clenched my fists so hard that I could hear the helmet I was holding creak in my grip. I guess even Avery was a bit doubtful about my gear in the face of so called experts.

"I get what you were going for and I applaud your ingenuity. Your set up is quite impressive and you certainly know how to design some style into your functionality but you know you can only go so far out of bounds before you hit ridiculous." Well at least the team leader had something nice to say before insulting me.

"Anyone else care to take a shot at my armor?"

Tanya raised her hand. I almost face palmed. She was about to say something when 'Vito' interrupted her, "Is it detachable?"

…

I had no idea how to answer that, and for all of three seconds I was no longer the center of attention. Vito got more than a few 'are you an idiot' looks from the others, and Pearl slapped him up side the back of his head for it. When I finally managed to collect my thoughts after such an unexpected question I cleared my throat. "No. Tanya?"

"Yes, what's up with not having a gun?"

I pulled out my blades, willed my nanites into them, slid them together and pulled back on the grips. The front opened out and began to hum and emit an orange light.

"Who needs a gun when you have an industrial grade laser and a pair of blades sharp enough to cut through almost anything like butter?" I turned to the training dummies on the far side of the room, what was left of them anyway, and fired a quick shot at them. My aim was a little off but my point was made when the beam sliced through the targets base and it toppled over. I was met by a couple oohs and ahhs but mostly silence.

"Still doesn't make up for the crippling tail." Pearl had to have the last say. Fine, if that's the way it was then challenge accepted.

"Does it work?" Pearl leveled her glare at Nelson before looking down at me again.

"Good question, anybody want to give it a try? Surely no one's afraid to spar with the new nerd girl?" I returned Pearls glare, daring her to accept. I was surprised when Desmond, the only one who hadn't said anything yet, stepped up and volunteered. Pearl gave a twisted smile.

"You might want to put your helmet on. If you're going to be using your tail then we need to be in full gear and I don't want to be responsible for any accidents." I nodded, put the helmet on and dumped the rest of my gear into Avery's lap as he pulled up a chair with Mr. Dolman a ways form the others and where we would be sparing.

"Just curious, why am I fighting the sniper in hand to hand combat?"

"Because if you can't beat the sniper you probably shouldn't be on the front lines anyway." I stopped and blinked at Avery through the mask, it made perfect sense, but he was the last one I expected to say it.

"Alright then." Why did I have a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach? I deactivated the auto balance in the tail as I stepped up to face the seasoned sniper. He was completely relaxed and I was wound as tight as a spring. _Deep breaths Alexandra, you've got this._ I had been practicing my coordination with the nanites nearly every waking moment since I woke up in the hospital, that had been a nightmare in itself considering I was simultaneously trying to salvage as much of my former life as possible. I stood in the relaxed stance my self-defense teachers had drilled into me over the years, I knew that a couple of fancy, never before used in a real life scenario, moves weren't going to cut it on their own. For all my tough talk I knew I wasn't a match for any of these guys if they got serious, I would have to take them by surprise. Having the extra processing power of the nanites and the bladelike hypodermic needle of a tail would have to be my saving grace at this point.

He struck first, diving in without a second's hesitation after I nodded that I was ready. I dropped down to avoid his round kick, which after sailing over my head turned into an axe kick. I was just fast enough to turn it into a glancing blow by knocking his foot to the side with the flat of the tails blade. I stumbled back from the force of the impact alone and realized it immediately. I was so outmatched it wasn't funny. Sure I could take the hits, that wasn't the problem, the problem lie in the fact that I couldn't hit him hard enough to beat him in a fight. I started backpedaling fast as a flurry of blows rained down on me, half of which made solid contact.

 _What have I gotten myself into?_ There was no way the standards were this high for front line combat, were they? Nearly backing myself into the wall I managed to dodge around Desmond and put some distance between us before he was on to me again. Thanks to the little bit of distance I was ready for him this time. I brought my fist up hard, just in time to block another axe kick and catching him by surprise, I pushed forward. I may not be able to win at a war of attrition but I knew how to use the element of surprise. He didn't topple over like I had intended but off balance was more than I could have asked for a moment ago. My tail whipped out and caught him in the knee just fast enough to finish his balancing act, and he hit the floor. I wasted no time pinning his arms and pointing the now extended hypodermic needle in his face to make my point, so to speak.

"Didn't know it could do that."

"No you didn't, you might have if everyone would have liked to know what I could do rather than telling me what I _couldn't._ Oh, and for further reference I'm working on a universal adapter as well as the needle too." he nodded and I got up off of him and pulled my helmet off and wiped the sweat from my eyes. I would have to find a better way to cool the suit if I was going to be fighting on this level regularly, having nanites was all well and good but if you focused them all on one thing they tended to put out a lot of heat. "Why do I get the feeling that you were going easy on me?"

"Well I could have flipped you off of me and continued but I didn't know what I would have looked like after getting a needle that size to the face. You really caught me off guard with that one handed block. Didn't think anyone was that strong, even with a suit on."

"Normally I'm not, I don't think I could pull that off again for another couple hours and a good meal. Super strength has its drawbacks, between the muscle fatigue and the heat output I think I will stick to training a bit more before I try that again. And I couldn't have done it without a suit either at this point." I hadn't noticed the others staring at me until now.

"Not bad."

I almost checked to see if I was hearing things when Pearl said that but I thought better of it. _Might as well take what I can get at this point_.

"You did good kid." Mr. Dolman spoke up, "By the way, before Vito, our close combat genius came along, Desmond was our best hand to hand combatant." That would explain a lot.

I looked back to Desmond, there was a lot of things I would have to learn, and I had a feeling that there were things that I may never know.

Days pass as we got to know the team better. Avery's initiation was nowhere near as grand as mine, after showing off his skills with a variety of guns and a couple laps around the military test track in some of their fancy toys he was pretty much welcomed in with open arms. It doesn't hurt that he has nearly ten years prior military service, half of which was front lines in various war torn countries across the world. I was almost envious of him, almost.

Turns out my initiation was just beginning, I thought I would be ready for almost anything but I was clearly not. Combat was one thing, the real test began when I was assigned a room at the base rather than living in an apartment like I had thought I might end up doing. Not a problem, it actually solved a few things for me and it was a decent sized room considering I had it all to myself. On the other hand I had to keep it not just clean but well taken care of on a regular basis, and that meant getting rid of almost half of the things I had so painstakingly rescued from my old residence when I found out that I couldn't stay. On top of it all I had to ask for help to figure out where the washing machine was. It was going to take a lot of getting used to too get to know this place and not ask too many stupid questions.

Tomorrow was to be our baptism by fire, our first mission on the team and from the sounds of it, it was going to be one hell of a day.


	5. Taking Names

**Hey guys, sorry it took so long to update. Had no idea where to start this one. Hope you like it.**

 **Genome**

 **Ch.5 Taking Names**

Thud

"Hey!" I nearly toppled to the floor after pearl rolled me off of the couch in the lounge area. I say area because the place was basically that. one big room divided into different areas. Other than sleeping quarters, each of us got one fairly sized room for everything we owned. Bonding was not on the list of top priorities between me and Pearl.

"Hop to it fresh meat." Oh and pearls new nick name for me. The joy…

"Quit the bickering and get it in gear slackers." Not so bad being called a slacker though, it seemed to be Dolmans term for any and all of his teammates as long as they weren't moving as fast or efficiently as he wanted. So overall not bad. I had asked Nelson to help format the cube but we hadn't made much progress, not until we got Desmond involved that is. The two of them had a hay day going over my equipment and vastly improving upon my design and incorporating several parts and functions from pre-existing gear. My EMP's now had adjustable power levels, my blades were also fine-tuned with more versatile output and my helmet didn't creak when I pushed in on the sides anymore.

"Grimm, you're on deck with Vito." Great… why did I always get paired with lover boy?

"Hey how's it going." I groan and ignore the eyebrow thing he does when he flirts with every woman he meets. I jump up to take my seat in the mobile unit. Second largest vehicle in the garage, looks a lot like an oversized Batmobile, you know the one. The tank with the kick ass jumps. Yeah, that was my work vehicle, only in urban camo. I had been on the team for a month now and things were definitely not what I had expected. Most of the work we did was field work yes, but not the kind I had expected. You would think that being a scientist would have made me more aware of the way things really worked but no. I was forever a diehard fan of action movies and TV shows, where most everything the characters did was in some way dangerous and exciting. Today however was one of those days we did get to go out and be dangerous. I was phyched.

"The target has decided to go out and be stupid, we don't yet know what triggered his change in behavior but chances are that some detective wannabe spooked him. Now we get to go in and get things under control before anyone gets hurt and hopefully clean things up before the public is any the wiser about the missing tech involved." We had been assigned the case of one Carver Evens, genius college dropout tinkering with stolen military tech for who knows what purpose. Our job was originally to find out how he got it, why, and what to do with him after we figured the first two out. So far we had the how. He had managed to sneak into the police department evidence lock up and get his hands on a bit of tech from an ongoing investigation that was scheduled for release just hours after he took it. why? Not a damned clue, but one of the junior detectives had spooked him after asking to many questions and prying too deep into a case he wasn't supposed to be involved in anymore. "Any questions?"

"How spooked?" Vito, always asking the vague questions.

"Spooked enough to need us to show up ASAP." But not in full gear or full force. Me, Vito, and Dolman were the only ones actually going in unless things, escalated. "Records show that he shouldn't own any weapons but that doesn't mean he won't be armed or dangerous, we will proceed with extreme caution and try to talk some sense into the kid before anyone makes any decisions they might regret."

"In other words get him talking and keep him calm."

"You got it."

Four minutes and one almost crash later we were there. some hot shot reporter neatly got himself run over when he jumped in front of our still moving vehicle to 'ask us a few questions about our prior investigation into the matter at hand'. If Pearl had been driving instead of Desmond we would have had a lot more paperwork to fill out tonight. Not that she isn't a good driver, no she's one of the best, she just wouldn't have stopped for a reporter getting in the way of an actual emergency.

We filed into the apartment complex, first Vito then me and finally Dolman covering our six just in case. Vito and Dolman took turns watching the halls and I cleared the rooms, evacuating anyone still inside. By the third floor we had evacuated almost twenty people, most of which I was certain didn't even live here. apparently everyone here but our target had busy social lives. Perfect place to hide stolen military tech. At the top of the fifth floor stairs we slowed our approach. This was the floor he was supposed to be on and there was one more floor to clear above. Skipping over his apartment we managed to clear the remainder of the floor without incident and Dolman sent me and Vito ahead to finish clearing the last floor, just in case.

As Vito gave the all clear for the final room of the empty apartment the two of us decided to give the roof a check. we filed up the stairs, Vito's gun at the ready as well as one of my blades. Vito took lead again and the door opened easily enough, and what we found was not unexpected. Nothing and no one on the roof, nothing out of the ordinary anyway. we made our way back down the two flights of stairs quickly. "Do things always go this well?"

"No, usually someone starts a firefight by now. Though I don't think that will be a problem this time."

"Why's that?" Vito gave me one of his grins again and I rolled my eyes.

"Because the tech this guy stole is medical tech, not weapons for once." Well this sounded right up my ally.

"What kind of med-tech?"

"Dunno, that's why you're here." Well didn't that make me feel special, my first real field day and I'm here to identify equipment.

Dolman nods as we skirt around the corner of the stairs and into the main hallway, only to be interrupted by the door swinging out into his face knocking him flat on his back. This Evans guy was strong, and when he came bolting out of the room he bowled right past Vito before he could level his pistol at him, but not before I could bring the flat of my blade up to slap him across the side of his head. it didn't stop him from getting past but it slowed him down enough for Vito to get his but in gear. I waved him on while I helped Dolman up. Other than taking a door to the face he was fine, bloodied his nose a bit but he was otherwise fine. We made our way up to Vito as quickly as we could, stopping only to make sure we were going the right direction. We could hear the sounds of a struggle as we rushed up to the rooftop, followed by a single gunshot.

A million things ran through my head at that moment and nearly having a heart attack was one of them. I had never been this close to a gun going off anywhere other than target practice.

We charged out ready for a fight when we noticed Vito's gun lying at the top of the stairs, and Evans standing perilously close to the edge of the roof cradling something to his chest with Vito swearing profusely while holding onto his wrist some ways away from him. I gave a sigh of relief as I realized no one had actually been shot.

Dolman lowered his rifle enough to stop the jittery man from backing up any further. "Evans, don't do anything stupid." He flinched at the mention of his name.

"You don't understand, it wasn't theirs in the first place. He gave it to me, then when they got involved they took it without knowing what it was." He? Yet another person to find then. Evans was working himself up awfully easily for someone with his intelligence.

"Hold on, slow down. Who got involved and took it?" Dolman had his work cut out for him on this one and it didn't help that Vito was still swearing up a storm in the background. I slowly worked my way over to him to get a look at his wrist while Evans was distracted.

"The cops, they thought it had something to do with the investigation but it didn't. Then they took it, they wouldn't give it back so I had to take it." what could have been so important that you couldn't let the cops have it? it didn't sound like a bio-weapon or anything or any kind of weaponized med-tec.

I had to know, something wasn't adding up right. "What is it they wouldn't give back Evans?"

"The cure, they wouldn't give it back, it wasn't theirs to decide what to do with anyway. I couldn't let them take it. You're with them aren't you? You can't have it!" Cure? Now something really wasn't adding up, there was no way the cops wouldn't have recognized a cure of some kind in their possession and he was getting overly worked up again. It was hard to imagine someone as smart as this would get so easily worked up over a fake cure though, unless he was somehow duped.

"Calm down. Were here now, we aren't the police, maybe we can help." Leave it to Dolman to be so straight forward. At least it seemed to work.

"No, no you can't help, no one can help anymore. They know, he knows what happened. He won't let me use it now." He gave a little hysterical giggle after that last part. We were losing him.

"Evans, look at me. Who gave you the cure? We need to know who you got it from." The poor man was losing it one piece at a time, his smile cracked and he gave another giggle as he stepped closer to the edge of the roof. "Evans, please. Don't do anything you'll regret."

He began shaking his head side to side, "It's too late for that. they know where I am, he will kill me for this. He will come for it." Not taking his eyes from Dolman he was about to go over, I took a chance. I lunged at him, one arm outstretched the other clinging to my blade. His reaction was slow, mine wasn't. We went over the edge at the same time. I kicked my nanites into full gear, grabbed ahold of him, and plunged my blade into the edge of the rooftop. We were left dangling six stories up over a very unhealthy looking drop into the ally below. I had to admit that he was heavier than he looked, I was straining to keep us both from slipping as my blade held us up without giving ground. The same could not be said for my arms however. "Stop wriggling you big oaf! I'm trying to save your life," he was practically crying now, pain and fear twisting his features into an ugly mask.

"NO! He will find me! There isn't anything you can do to help me!"

"Yes there is! Stop struggling and tell me his name. I promise you I will stop them!" Evans squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth, he stopped struggling long enough to give me a better grip. "Alright, better. His name."

"They called him Dorian." I nearly let him slip at the name.

I hissed a curse at the name, there was no way this was happening. Sure I had joined to catch the bastard but there was no way it was going to be this easy, and a 'cure'? it sounded more like a trap to lure me out of hiding and finish what he and started. I prayed with everything I had that it was a different Dorian. "Of course they do." I felt a pair of hands wrap around my wrist and I looked up to find Dolman attempting to pull us up. Another glance down and I finally got a glimpse of the vial of blue goo he had been guarding. "Now hold on tight, were getting… what the hell do you think you're doing?"

He threw the vial over the edge of the roof, forcing Dolman to let go in order to secure it before it hit something and broke. The strain on my arms was back tenfold as my nanites struggled to compensate for the sudden weight. "Don't let him find it. and don't let him get away with this." He pulled something small out of his pocket and slammed it against the hand holding him up. Pain and electricity surged through my arm as I screamed. Needless to say Evans dropped like a stone to the dirty concrete below with a sad look still on his face. I closed my eyes and concentrated on not falling myself. Dolman popped back over the edge and half threw me back onto the roof.

"You alright?" In shake my head holding my arm, now completely numb to the shoulder. I don't know what he hit me with but it was certainly effective even with nanites to disrupt the electrical discharge. "Shit."

"Don't worry too much, just got one hell of a jolt is all. I'll probably be fine in a few, how's numbnuts wrist looking?" Vito gave a pained smile as he held up a newly wrapped, badly sprained wrist.

"He's lucky it isn't broken. He may be a close combat genius but handguns are not meant for his kind of close combat." Note to self, don't let Vito out of my sight while in the field, he can't hold his own with a gun in his hand.

Pearl and Desmond shot out of the open doorway at the other end of the roof weapons at the ready, only to look around sheepishly as there was no longer anyone to aim at. "We heard a gunshot, where's the guy?"

"Went over the edge, gun went off in Vito's hand when he tried to wrestle the bear."

"Again? Dude I told you to shoot the blasted thing at them before they got to you. Point and shoot or tackle them, don't try both at the same time." So this has happened before. Vito turned a vivid shade of pink as Pearl chewed him out, "and what the hell happened to you? You look like shit."

"Thanks, your looking lovely yourself today. Evans hit me some kind of handmade Taser before…" I clamped my mouth shut and turned away to keep myself from throwing up. somehow today had ended on a worse not than when Dorian had tried to kill me.

"Sorry I asked." Pearl turned back to Vito with a guilty look on her face, making a point to busy herself with examining his wrist.

"You alright?" Desmond looked more than a little concerned.

"Will be when I get the feeling back in my arm. Does this mean I can Taser people now?" Vito sputtered out a laugh at that one, and Desmond cracked a smile as well.

"If you're done, what do you make of this?" Dolman handed me the goo. It almost looked like Dorians unfinished half of the Nano serum, but thicker and brighter blue.

"No way to know until I get a good look at it under a microscope. But if I had to guess, this is the 'cure' he was talking about." A quick nod and we were off again. By the time we got back to the urban Batmobile there were enough reporters and crime scene tape to make an episode of my favorite shows. Too bad I wasn't in the mood for crime shows at the moment. A special squad of MEs had been called in to take care of the body, it was nice to know we had first dibs on any intel he might not have taken to the grave with him but Carver Evans was a name and a face I would never forget.

On our way back I decided to breach the subject of fates twisted sense of humor. "He told me the name of his supplier."

"And?"

"Dorian." Silence, long and uncomfortable silence.

"Well shit." The idea of a mad scientist running rampant was bad enough. The fact that he was most likely implicated in something big was not a comforting thought.

 **And that's it for ch.5!**


	6. Newsworthy

**Genome**

 **Ch6. Newsworthy**

I had been mulling over it for days, the goo was obviously related to our nanotech, and highly dangerous when introduced to living tissue. But not very lethal. Only about a third of the tissue samples exposed to the substance died from it, the others seemed to speed reparative processes and in lab mice and rats it even did a decent job stopping most wounds from bleeding. The downside was that it currently induced psychosis in _every_ test subject. The smarter the subject the less life threatening it was. I would bet that Evans had two of these vials originally, and it was the most likely reason he had acted the way he had.

I sighed dejectedly as I slumped over the microscope for the third time in the last four minutes, I hadn't found out anything new about the goo in the last few hours. It wasn't like I expected all of the answers to just fall into my lap or anything but this was my area of expertise I should have at least had a better grasp on it. Had Dorian really been that much better at this than I was? Probably, I mean it was more of a very interesting hobby of mine than an actual dream job. I was guilty of being a dabbler in anything I found to be interesting, nanotech just happened to be incredibly interesting and it just so happened I was good with it.

So far I didn't know where the Goo came from other than who most likely made it, and there was no way Dorian was about to suddenly come out and tell us where he was. I barely knew how it was made because it was clearly not made the same way as the ones that he had used to try to kill me with and although I could almost synthesize it what good would that do me? I wasn't about to make more of the defective stuff and I most definitely was not going to use it on myself. Who knows what kind of crazy it would make me. I groaned with my hands clenching the hair on either side of my forehead.

"Any luck?" Nelson was a sweet heart when it came to most things but sadly not much help when it came to this particular scenario. Best he and Desmond could do was run it through the spectrometer and tell me what it was made of and the results had come up with interesting results to say the least but that was about it.

I groaned again, "No, but I sure could use some. Basically I have half of the puzzle and no idea what it's supposed to look like."

"This sounds like a common problem for you." I nearly jumped out of my skin as Avery spoke up from behind me.

"Holy shit Avery. Do you always have to sneak up on people?" I ran a hand through my now messed up hair. Tanya had told me I was better off getting it cut short and I agreed that it would be a good idea but I didn't want to if I didn't have to.

"No, just you." Rolling my eyes at him as Nelson laughed. He had a point though. Doing things halfway had gotten me into this situation in the first place. If we had just agreed on a direction to go with the nanites in the first place and worked on them together, then we would probably have gotten the results we wanted years ago. I couldn't help but feel that I really was, at least in part, responsible for what Dorian had done and was most likely still doing. "You know it isn't your fault." I looked up at Avery again, I swear he could read minds sometimes. "Don't look so surprised, we've all been where you are before."

"Good to know my thoughts are still my own." The two exchanged looks and stifled laughs. I could feel a story coming on. Avery didn't tell many of those.

"It isn't hard to see that you're having a hard time, your pretty easy to read. Probably because your new." Another thing about Nelson, he wasn't the most elegant with his words. Didn't need to be, he was one of the fact guys. "Not saying it's a bad thing, in fact it's kind of refreshing knowing what's what and it makes you more approachable." Better, but now I had to stifle a snigger at _his_ discomfort.

"Anyway, it's obvious that this thing with Dorian is bothering you and knowing your history with the guy I can see why. Honestly I feel like we're in the same boat here, after all I was one of the board members in charge of the project in case you've forgotten already." Now that he mentioned it I had forgotten. "When we found out that he might be the one behind the Goo I couldn't help but feel like I could have done more to stop him, or if I had noticed sooner then I might have prevented this somehow." I had often wondered when we had first arrived why he had joined the team with me. after I learned of his military history I had stopped asking questions but now things were starting to click into place.

"And you don't feel like that anymore?"

"Nope."

Feelings like guilt didn't just go away on their own, not that quickly. "What changed?"

"I remembered that I'm only human and the man's a sociopath."

Fair enough.

Not feeling so bad about what had happened anymore I still felt like crap. I hadn't gotten any sleep since the incident the day before and food had been the last thing on my mind. My stomach growled, but not the last thing on the agenda. I needed a break anyways. Two other stomachs joined in.

"I believe that is our que to get our buts in gear." We all smiled and set out to get something to silence our protesting stomachs.

I had to say the life of a secret government agent wasn't all glitz and glamour. Sure we had access to any and all of the cutting edge tech as well as our own experimental stuff, and the paychecks to play around with it, but we had to fend for ourselves like normal people when it came to everyday things. So Chinese food it was. By the time we came back we were all stuffed and that was saying something. I ate twice as much as anyone could have ever expected someone my size to, and I couldn't hide my amusement. I mean come on, how could I not laugh at the looks on their faces when I polished off my fourth heaping plate at the all you can eat buffet? I was going to have to find a better source of nutrition than normal food if this kept up though, especially if Dorian succeeded in making any more noncrazy super people… Wow I need a better way to refer to people like me. Super people just sounds stupid.

Anyways.

Just in case one or more of his victims ends up somewhat sane, and not evil or something, we are going to need a better way to feed said people because the stomach aches I got from stuffing myself on a regular basis just to get what I need to keep going, let alone what I need after a good workout, was not something that you get used to. Sure I loved food and I could space out my meals to keep myself from getting stomach aches, but no bad guy anywhere is _ever_ going to wait for you to eat to kick his butt, or time his law breaking for your convenience. Nor was it very practical to eat out anywhere but a buffet… unless you get paid to do what I do anyway.

"Hey, space case…" I jumped up from the microscope _again_ when Pearl knocked on my head. I glared indignantly at her while rubbing my head but otherwise ignored her. "Might want to turn the TV on. News channel."

"That's a little vague, which one." I rolled my eyes without looking away from my work.

"Any of 'em. They all have the same story on at the moment." This had my attention, something this big had to be worth checking out. Spinning my chair around and wheeling it over to the table with the remote I clicked the news on.

Dozens of reporters and hundreds of spectators were gathered around one man at a podium outside what appeared to be a construction site. Slowly putting the remote back in its spot I leaned forward in my seat and scooted slowly around the table to get a better look.

"… and they are calling it the Manswell Project. Something of this scale has never before been seen in the race through space. We were lucky to get an interview with…" I couldn't believe it. humanity was finally taking its first real steps past our own solar system. Sure we had launched innumerable probes and such but this was big. My biggest dream growing up had been to explore, anywhere and everywhere. Tech just happened to be the best way for me to do so. Don't get me wrong I loved helping people and doing what I do now but to be able to see the things these people were going to get the chance to see? I was honestly envious of the lucky SOBs that would get the chance to go.

Maybe I could do something about it?

Now, ideas were dangerous things. Especially when they were the ideas of someone with the knowhow and the resources to pull it off. I may not have access to the Manswell projects build specifics, but I did have access to the old NASA specs and all of this advanced prototype tech.

"Yeash… maybe I shouldn't have told you. That's honestly the creepiest grin I have ever seen. Even Vito hasn't pulled something that creepy yet, not even when he stares at those ads with that famous model in them. What was her name again?" I turned four shades of red. I hadn't realized I was smiling in the first place, although my friends in school had all told me I did it when I found something truly interesting. "ah well not important, you should keep the creepy in check." another shade of red worked its way onto my face as she walked away.

The screen died with a click. "Don't let her get to you, although it was a little disturbing. Was it really that interesting?" Tanya had wandered over shortly after Pearl had. Remote in hand she winked at me jokingly. Her short mussy hair dangled in front of her eyes when she wasn't in uniform. I smiled meekly back, thoroughly embarrassed about what had just happened. I was starting to get used to life here and I wanted to make sure that I had a place here, not just a position on some one's payroll. The taller woman laughed lightly and gave me a reassuring smile.

I spent the next hour staring at a black screen as I thought about life here and the new idea I had fallen in love with. I didn't want to leave, not the team anyway. The rest of the universe could do as it pleased as long as I belonged. I didn't want to abandon my newfound dream but what other choice did I have if I didn't want to let the team down? I had the resources to do just about anything here, and the collective technological knowhow to pull it off. I could get the team to help, but then who would hunt down the psyco turning geniuses into brain mush? I felt another grin spread across my face.

Another idea found its way into my thoughts. That would do nicely, that would do nicely indeed. Now if I could only get the others to agree to it.

 **And the suspense thickens muahahahaha! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Again sorry for the delay, I will hopefully be getting artwork for all of my stuff done as well as updating both of my stories. Thanks again!**


	7. not a chapter

All of my writing is currently on hiatus for a while due to the death of my mother, I do not know when I will be able to get back to it but I will eventually get back to it.


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